Serbian Patriarch Porfirije sent an invitation to all school principals in Belgrade to participate with students and parents in the Salvation Day procession. Not a single school responded to that call because, as they say from the Forum of Belgrade High Schools, the church is not separated from the state, and that is how children get involved in politics.
We are not strangers to divisions. We drag them for centuries, unable to hear the other
It is difficult to single out one organizer of litias that have been held in Belgrade in recent weeks. Various right-wing parties, groups and movements organize them, or help them in this, and the Serbian Orthodox Church blows the wind at their backs. Even on Saturday, September 17, they have no intention of sitting idly by
Public support for the traditional family is not the point here. The bottom line is that people who do not share the same view of the world are denied the rights that make them equal and equal citizens. The bottom line is that people who love people of the same sex are kept on the fringes of the law, or outside it, like disenfranchised criminals. In this way, their "sin" is criminalized, and they become second-class citizens
There is only one answer to Vučić's hypocrisy, the church's militarization of religion and the march of the Putinophile right: a massive visit to the Europride event, especially the September 17 Parade.
And what if all this is really because of Kosovo? Did Vučić lose control over the right or did Europride serve as a convenient tool of trade? In the political matchmaking that has reigned here for a long time, it is easy to imagine the president calculating on the blackboard and writing with a marker: I will give Kosovo to Europe, but to calm these people here, I will ban Europride
It is a political absurdity that a significant part of the causes that brought the government into the fall zone is connected with what brought Zdravko Krivokapić to the position of prime minister. The rallies, which generated a critical mass for the removal of Milo Đukanović's regime, also increased the ambition of the spiritual authorities to penetrate deeply into political life and transform themselves into a real force that would influence the secular state. This fact became a counterweight to the European path of Montenegro and greatly encouraged the conflict between two value systems and different visions of democracy.
The saga surrounding the Basic Treaty has been going on for months and is being brought to the light of day, one would say, according to political needs. The last episode was the meeting between Dritan Abazović and Patriarch Porfiri. At the same time, excessive insistence on the national, which is often the result of (un)pure interests, and/or commenting on local politics from here, is closing the door to the detriment of both the Church and society.
